ADPD unveils transport proposals, derides Bonett's 'half-baked' plan

Traffic easing measures unveiled by the government are "half-baked" and play it safe for fear of upsetting voters, the Green Party said Saturday as it unveiled its own proposals to fix Malta’s traffic woes.

ADPD general secretary Ralph Cassar said the measures proposed by Transport Minister Chris Bonett will get the country nowhere because they are short-sighted and include no proverbial sticks to accompany the carrots on offer.

Bonett has pledged to introduce a series of measures over an 18-month period with the aim of easing ongoing traffic problems. The first measures will be the introduction of new bus routes later this month.

By summer, the government will also implement measures that will offer car drivers and 17-year-olds cash grants in exchange for their car driving licences for a number of years.

Cassar, who was accompanied by ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci, said the country needed much more to properly fix the problem and unveiled the ADPD’s proposals to tackle the issue.

The party believes it is possible to slash traffic in dense urban areas by 50 per cent through eight main measures:

1. Gradually, over a six-month period, phase out subsidies on petrol and diesel and require people to pay market prices.
2. Stop construction of new roads to avoid what urban planners describe as ‘induced demand’ – the phenomenon of traffic growing to fill new lanes of roads.
3. Give absolute priority to buses with bus priority corridors and park-and-ride facilities covering Valletta, Sliema, Gżira, Msida, Ta’ Xbiex, St Julian’s, Paola, Marsa, Ħamrun, Birkirkara, Mosta and St Paul’s Bay.
4. Introduce a massive, nationwide pedestrianisation plan.
5. Focus on residential parking schemes.
6. Build safe and continuous paths for bicycles and scooters connecting major hubs, especially schools and colleges.
7. Introduce a new crime specifying homicide caused by a vehicle, to emphasise that vehicles can be lethal weapons, and permanently ban dangerous drivers from holding a licence.
8. Prepare for a bus rapid transit system with dedicated lanes of traffic exclusively and permanently reserved for it. Ensure park-and-ride facilities are connected to this network.

Traffic pollution was a prime contributor to bad respiratory health and climate change, Cassar said, stressing that public space that should belong to citizens was instead dedicated to vehicles.

He cited an example from Ħamrun as a case in point; part of a Ħamrun school has been adapted to be used as free public car park in line with a proposal by Bonett to use such public buildings outside of working hours to provide parking.

The minister spoke about this as though it was some sort of “brilliant idea,” Cassar said, and people were not even being charged to park there, depriving the school of revenue that it could use to improve its facilities for students.

“These are the depths to which our transport policy has plunged,” he said.